The present invention generally relates to robotic cannons and, in a representatively illustrated embodiment thereof, more particularly relates to a specially designed vertical ball cannon with a sliding deflector structure for a robotic vehicle.
In the construction of small robotic vehicles which manipulate objects, one of the design challenges presented is to provide the vehicle with a capability to vertically launch a smooth ball several feet above the ground and, preferably, into a deflector that deflects the ball's trajectory into a tall cylindrical receptacle. It has been found that attempting to grasp the smooth ball can be difficult, as the smooth surface of the ball may slip out of a mechanical hand. Grasping a ball can also be challenging when there are multiple different sizes of balls. Additionally, when the ball is to be placed into one of several cylindrical receptacles of differing heights, a mechanism is required to allow a mechanical hand to be vertically displaced from the ground (where a ball will be picked up) to above the tallest possible receptacle. A vertical lifting mechanism capable of supporting the weight of a mechanical hand is potentially quite slow, as the hand must be vertically lifted and lowered for each individual ball to be placed into a receptacle.
In view of these design difficulties it can be seen that a need exists for a vertical lifting device, preferably mounted on a robotic vehicle, which provides the capability to rapidly and accurately lift multiple differently-sized balls from the ground and into multiple different-height receptacles. It is to this need that the present invention is primarily directed.